Yes—the Amber Road, the main trade route to the Baltic, did go through Central Europe.
And the reason trade went overland instead of by sea is because the Romans weren’t trading directly with the Baltic—they were paying soldiers stationed along the Danube and Rhine who then traded with neighboring peoples (and also directly subsidizing some frontier tribes), and the frontier peoples of Central Europe were then trading Roman gold for Baltic amber.
Very cool map I haven’t seen before, thank you!
It’s so strange to me that the Romans went through central Europe, were they just taking the land route to the sea nations up north?
Yes—the Amber Road, the main trade route to the Baltic, did go through Central Europe.
And the reason trade went overland instead of by sea is because the Romans weren’t trading directly with the Baltic—they were paying soldiers stationed along the Danube and Rhine who then traded with neighboring peoples (and also directly subsidizing some frontier tribes), and the frontier peoples of Central Europe were then trading Roman gold for Baltic amber.